The next Southeastern state we’re going to discuss moving freight in is Tennessee. Tennessee differs from the other three states we’ve covered so far in the way that it is not a coastal state, so has no deep-water ports or coastal line. Yet, despite this Tennessee has still become one of the most important freight corridors in the Unites States. This is because it has a central location, large highway network, major rail intersections, fantastic riverways and one of the world’s busiest cargo airports, making the volunteer state a top player in domestic and international freight movement.

However, moving freight here comes with it’s own unique challenges. It’s a state that has very tricky geography and terrain from the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachians and the Cumberland Plateau and when you couple this landscape with seasonal weather changes and city congestion, you can anticipate bottlenecks along your route making moving freight in Tennessee complex. But not impossible. In this blog we’re going to breakdown Tennessee’s busiest freight routes, common chokepoints, state laws and regulations, oversize and overweight rules, and some general points that shippers should know before moving freight across Tennessee. Let’s get straight into it.

Tennessee’s Role In Freight 🚚✈️🚢🚅

The central location of Tennessee means it’s only a one day drive from 76% of major U.S. markets and with no seaports it means it relies heavily on truck, rail, barge and air as means of freight transportation. Let’s start by taking a deeper look into the more popular trucking routes.

Tennessee’s Busiest Road Freight Routes 🚚

There’s some major interstate corridors running through Tennessee that make moving freight through this state much more efficient.

I-75 – The I-75 is a key North-South roadway connecting Florida – Georgia – Tennessee – Kentucky.

I-65 – I-65 runs 121 miles through the middle portion of the state of Tennessee, where it joins from Alabama and passes through suburbs like Brentwood and enters the major city of Nashville.

I-40 – The I-40 is a major East-West interstate crossing the entire state from Knoxville – Nashville – Memphis.

I-24 – The I-24 starts in the “freight alley”, Chattanooga and travels Northwest to Murphreesboro, Nashville and Clarksville across to central Tennessee.

I-55 – Interstate 55 enters Tennessee from the Southwest corner, and runs 12 miles into the city of Memphis. It then heads North from Southaven, Mississippi alongside the Interstate 69.

I-69 – The I-55 and I-69 overlap in the Whitehaven area in Memphis to the I-240.

I-81 – Interstate 81 follows the Appalachian Mountains and provides a major trucking corridor and link the Southeastern states and Tennessee Valley to the Northeast. It doesn’t pass through any major cities, instead it serves small to mid sized cities.

However, these major trucking routes don’t come without drawbacks, you can expect delays along some in certain areas. Let’s run you through the bottleneck areas in Tennessee below. ⬇️

High Congestion Roadways 🚙🚗🚚

According to the Tennessee Department of Transportation TDOT and other sources including the American Transportation Research Institute, the biggest bottleneck areas on the Tennessee roads are:

Nashville: Heavy congestion across the I-24, I-40, I-65, and I-440 network.

Chattanooga: Slow moving traffic around I-24, I-75 and Highway 27 junctions in Chattanooga, particularly near the Georgia line.

Memphis: Delays at I-40 and I-240 East interchange and on the I-55 near the Mississippi River crossing and Arkansas border.

Knoxville: Congestion around the I-40, I-75 junction and the I-140 I-640 West interchange.

Now that we’ve highlighted congestion chokepoints on Tennessee’s key roadways, let’s take a look at another one of Tennessee’s major transportation solutions, air freight operations.

Air Cargo ✈️

There are six commercial airports in the state, with the main cargo airport in Tennessee being Memphis International Airport, MEM. MEM was awarded the busiest cargo airport in 2023, and is now the second busiest cargo airport in the world, and the number one busiest in North America, handling millions of metric tons of cargo every year. Nashville International Airport is another large player in air freight for Tennessee, along with Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport and Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport. Several large, industry dominating companies operate full air freight services from Tennessee, for example the likes of FedEx, Amazon Air and Pilot Freight, etc. it’s no wonder they’re so busy!

Rail Cargo 🚄

Tennessee also has fantastic, efficient rail services that includes six of the seven Class 1 carriers that operate in the U.S and 19 shortline railroads. Once again, it’s Memphis that comes in with one of the largest rail centers in the U.S. So, as you can probably tell, rail plays a critical role in the state, it offers a reliable, competitively priced, high capacity shipping option for moving bulk commodities and intermodal containers across the Southeast and further with a strong East-West and North-South connectivity, covering all bases.

River Cargo ⛴

The Tennessee River stretches 650 miles, passing several major logistics hubs and is part of a larger inland waterway, including the Ohio and Mississippi rivers which play a huge role in moving bulk and heavy commodities. The different types of freight that move along the river consist of commodities like: coal, crude materials, petroleum products, manufactured goods, etc. and some super interesting goods such as rocket components which sail down the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf of Mexico until they reach Florida and Cape Canaveral. While road and rail are the more sought after modes of transportation, barge freight offers cost-effective lower cost per ton than trucking or rail, high capacity options for bulk goods, direct access to the Gulf Coast export routes and higher fuel efficiency that shippers often over look.

Oversize & Overweight Rules In Tennessee 🏋️

Moving oversize and overweight freight in Tennessee takes a bit more expertise than your normal everyday cargo, it’s important to bare in mind that there are more factors that need careful consideration and planning before hitting the road, than you might initially think. The combination of mountain grades, narrow corridors, major metropolitan bottlenecks and strict travel-hour rules makes even straightforward oversize and overweight freight more difficult to move. Let’s take a look at some of these restrictions together.

Tennessee aligns with the typical U.S. Federal limits for vehicles operating without a permit. Here’s the maximum dimensions for shipments that can be moved without a special permit.

Weight = 80,000 lbs gross weight

Width = 8ft 6in wide

Height = 13ft 6 in tall

Length = 53ft trailers are allowed on interstates, but there are some shorter limits on some state routes.

Any shipment exceeding any of these 4 limits, will require an oversize, overweight permit for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, TDOT. As a lot of areas in Tennessee, particularly in the East have a ton of older bridges, tunnels and mountain passes the height of a shipment is extremely important, get it wrong and the limited clearance areas will let you know about it and you will end up with damages and costs!

Superload

A shipment is defined as a superload in Tennessee when it is a non-divisible piece of cargo that exceeds the following dimensions:

Gross Weight

A gross weight that exceeds 165,000 lbs is considered a superload.

Width

Any freight with a width exceeding 16 feet.

Height 

Freight taller than 15 feet and 6 inches lands in the superload category.

Loads of these size need approval from the Tennessee Department of Transportations Structure Division and also a special permit. Gaining one of these permits is possible through a specific permit application process through the TDOT online system.

When Are Escorts Required? 🚗

Oversize and Overweight loads don’t only require permits to facilitate movement. Depending on the dimensions and planned route, some loads also need escort vehicles when moving on the roads. Including those that exceed these limits:

Width

When a load has a width of over 12 feet at least one escort vehicle is needed, now if this load exceeds 14 feet then that one escort vehicle is upped to two.

Height

A load over 15 feet high requires a route survey and an escort vehicle.

Extreme Over Length

Any load that exceeds length limits, might require an escort vehicle in the front and rear depending on the manoeuvrability of the freight and the complexity of the route.

Holiday & Weekend Restrictions On Movement 🗓

Other travel restrictions are as follows. While there are no standard restrictions that apply to travel hours of standard vehicles. Oversize and overweight loads are restricted to movement during daylight hours only, meaning 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset. Plus extra restrictions including no travel windows on major holidays for these oversize and overweight shipments, including: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, holiday weekends and this one is not a holiday, but during high levels of traffic, especially during events in Nashville.

So What Other Challenges Do We Face When Moving Freight In Tennessee? 🤔

We’ve briefly mentioned some challenges that come with moving freight through Tennessee throughout this blog, but we haven’t really touched on the environmental challenges that come with the tricky terrain of Tennessee, especially during the colder seasons. Particularly in the Eastern areas of the state, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian foothills and the Cumberland Plateau are known for sudden elevation changes, and reduced visibility, creating steep grades, tight curves and extended downhill descents. These roadways require extra caution, especially when moving heavy or top heavy loads. Eastern Tennessee is also no stranger to cold, icy conditions with dense fog in areas, which can completely shut down sections of major roadways like the I-40 or I-24. While central areas of Tennessee regularly see thunderstorms and tornado activity during the warmer months leading to closure of freight lanes and delays.

“The Silicone Valley of Freight’s” Role In Tennessee’s Logistics 🧡

Now, we couldn’t write a blog all about Tennessee’s logistics scene and not give an honorable mention to Chattanooga. It hasn’t earned itself the nickname of “The Silicone Valley of Freight” for nothing. It’s a real hub of innovation for distribution and logistics. To put it into perspective, thirteen companies based in Chattanooga were named among the nation’s fastest growing companies and it’s no surprise to us that eight of those thirteen are involved in logistics. It’s located perfectly with access to major interstates, Class 1 rail services, river barge shipping and air services. So, it’s no wonder it earned itself that nickname.

Another fun fact about Chattanooga that makes it so impressive and successful in freight is the talent that they benefit from. There’s a steady supply of skilled freight professionals coming out of higher education right there in the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga.

Now, you’re probably thinking, but every state has graduates? You’re right, and you don’t have to be a graduate to be successful, absolutely not. But what makes Chattanooga so special is that the U.S. News and World Report ranks the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga supply chain management program No. 3 among U.S. Universities. Not only that, but also the No. 1 major that students enroll for at that University is supply chain management! These qualifications open up a whole world of career possibilities, but it leaves Tennessee and Chattanooga in particular with a plethora of logistics professionals, who with some real life, hands on experience, can go on to become real freight moving pros.

So How Can We Move Freight Together In Tennessee? 🤔

What Tennessee lacks in deepwater ports and coastline, it makes up for in other strong transportation modes that can still have the same level of reach to major markets. Its’ central location, extensive interstate network, strong rail infrastructure, thriving river systems and busy air cargo operations make this state a top player in U.S. logistics.

But let’s not forget the challenges of moving freight here too, from mountainous terrain, unpredictable weather, metropolitan congestion in areas like Nashville. To move freight successfully here, you need a great partner with tons of experience and expertise in planning extensively. But, we think we have a solution, if you need to move any oversize and overweight freight through any of the Southeastern states, especially in Tennessee then we’re your people, we are the solution! We have operations based right here in the heart of the freight valley of Chattanooga, and would love to help you with your tricky shipments 😊

Reach out directly by cell on: 888-SHIP-911 or use the link below and someone will be in touch!

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